Keyrock

My guess is that AMD's insistence on using HBM has hurt it, at least in the short term. So far, Nvidia has eschewed using HBM in its consumer-grade GPUs and it hasn't cost them at all. As of right now, the benefits of HBM for gaming seem to be nonexistent, GDDR5 is still doing just fine. That may, of course, change in the future.

Ah yes, the beginning of Hitler's insistence on repeating Napoleon's mistake some 150 years earlier. Death from above.

I found out today that Sudden Strike 4 has friendly fire (to some degree). I called in an airstrike and one of my tanks was in the path where the bomber dropped its payload and I sorta blew up my own tank. #ProGamer #BrilliantStrategist

It's a Swery game, of course I'm interested.

Personally, I don't much care what Monolith do to Middle-Earth lore, so long as it makes for a fun and entertaining game.

From what I've read, it's finally become the game it should have been in the first place.

While I'm at it, I might as well drop some more 70s and early 80s RnB and Funk. One of my coworkers a couple weeks ago asked this question: The 90s and early 2000s were the best time for Hip-Hop and RnB, right? My reply was: I agree about the Hip-Hop. The implication being that I obviously do not agree about the RnB. I will go to bat for the 70s and early 80s in terms of RnB any day of the week. Earth Wind & Fire, Kool & tqhe Gang, The Commodores, Barry White, Diana Ross, Isaac Hayes, Marvin Gaye, and Teddy Pendergrass? How the **** are you going to go against that. I'm not trying to **** on 90s RnB, there were plenty of great performers, but, I'm sorry, you ain't stacking up against the 70s and early 80s. Case in point, here's Teddy P belting out a classic that's GUARANTEED to get dripping wet panties dropping to the floor: This song is 35 years old. It doesn't matter. Fellas, if you're looking for action, just turn off the lights, light some candles, and put this song on. The panties practically come off by themselves. Teddy P won't do you wrong I challenge any Obsidian Forumite, anyone, to find me a better groove on song. Take all the time you want. Any genre, any time period. Let's see if you can beat Teddy P. Go ahead, I dare you.

I may have posted this song before, or not, I don't even know at this point. Doesn't matter. I'm going to post it (potentially) again because it's one of the greatest songs ever. There's a reason this song has been remade a dozen times in practically every genre on earth. The reason is that it's an AMAZING song.

I may not be as extreme in my denouncement of Goodell and the NFL and Volo, but, for once, I can agree with a Giants fan. Give Goodell and the NFL the benefit of the doubt. Based on what? Based on their record of dubious rulings, backtracking, inconsistency, and secrecy? I should blindly trust them based on that? Are you daft? I mean, sure, the NFL might not be quite as corrupt as FIFA (they have yet to put out a full feature movie about their honor and purity within a year of a scandal that sees their high ranking officers arrested for fraud) but I'm not about to give them even a modicum of trust.

I'm playing Sudden Strike 4. While I don't generally play traditional RTSs, on account of me sucking horribly at them, because I'm terrible at large amounts of micromanagement, I really like real-time squad-based tactics, which is exactly what this is (because it reduces the amount of micromanagement necessary). There is no base building (at least in the campaign), nor spawning units. You do get reinforcements, but those are triggered by scripted events, you don't spawn them yourself. Basically, you have a squad and if they die they're dead, you need to keep them alive (in the mission itself, they don't carry over from mission to mission). It's kind of like WH40K: Dawn of War 2 in that regard. SS4 has been getting lukewarm reviews with the majority of the complaints being about skirmish mode (lack of maps and customization). I'm mainly in it for the campaign(s) and in that regard the game delivers. There are 3 full campaigns: German, Russian, and Allies, and every mission in every campaign has replayability as there are multiple commanders to choose from, each with different special abilities and passive bonuses, opening up different play styles. The missions themselves are nicely varied and units themselves have unique abilities. There is resource management, especially if you move through the map at a slow, measured pace, as you do have limited ammo and fuel. There are refuel vehicles and supply depots, but, unlike in some other games, refueling, repairing, and rearming are not instaqntaneous, and they leave your vehicles and their crew exposed, so you better form a defensive perimeter around them to defend them. Visually, the game looks good. There is a lot of attention to detail; tank crews will slowly crawl out of disabled tanks, provided they survived. Soldiers run out of burning buildings. You can salvage and use enemy vehicles and artillery, provided you kill the crew without killing the vehicle/equipment. The game runs like a champ, which is great to see, especially since it's a Unity game. I can run it at max settings at 1440p and it doesn't break a sweat. Granted, it's not the most graphics-intensive game, but, at the same time, it looks quite nice, with good animations and effects. About what you could reasonably expect from a 3D isometric game. I have not tried multiplayer yet, but, I have been assured that multiplayer works across Windows, Mac, and Linux, provided that you are on Steam. On GOG it's Windows and Mac only, since there is still no GOG Galaxy for Linux (despite them promising it 2 years ago, part of the reason I no longer buy anything from GOG).

Seems easy enough. That artillery gun is much less effective when surrounded. To no one's surprise, the French put up about as much fight as a cooked land snail. Some have complained that they don't tell you in advance the objectives to getting the 3 stars (they unlock extra abilities if you replay the mission, plus you need all 3 stars to unlock that mission's challenge mode), but I like having to figure it out on my own.

Without seeing the full extent of the NFL's investigation into the allegations against Zeke, something I'm quite sure the public will never see, heck, I wouldn't be surprised if Zeke himself never sees the full report, I cannot make a fully informed judgement on whether Goodell and the NFL acted correctly. Given my opinion of Goodell and the NFL brass (it contains words that this forum's software would auto-censor) and their recent history of inconsistent rulings and flip-flopping on rulings, I'm not about to give them the benefit of the doubt. Obviously, as a Cowboys fan, I'm going to be biased (that's human nature) and lean toward wanting to believe Zeke's side of the story, since I want him on the field giving opposing teams' defensive coordinators nightmares. That said, if presented with solid evidence of wrongdoing on Zeke's part, I would have no choice but to change my stance. Having been given no such evidence there is nothing to sway me away from leaning toward believing Zeke. All I, or anyone else in the general public, has to go on, are the allegations and the fact that the prosecution thought the accuser's testimony was inconsistent and not substantial enough to warrant making a formal charge. I'm sure there were spats that contained verbal jabs and there may have been physical contact from one or both parties, as is common when relationships end on a sour note. It's certainly possible that there was physicality that crossed the line from Zeke. It's also possible that this is the "revenge" of a vindictive ex who realized that she's about to miss out on riding the gravy train of Zeke's NFL money. Given the scant (read: nonexistent) details we've been given, I find both scenarios equally as plausible. The NFL is a private organization and can use whatever standards they see fit for their tribunal, they don't have to follow the United States' mantra of innocent until proven guilty. I, however, do follow said mantra. Until I am presented with solid evidence of Zeke's guilt, I will continue to presume him innocent.

Sudden Strike 4

That was actually scary to see how efficient the thing was. good it's only limited to a simple laning For now... #SaveUsJohnConnor

Valve unveiled SKYNET at TI today.

Zeke suspended 6 games. Disappointing, but not unexpected. The Ginger Hammer has shown a willingness to suspend players before with no actual evidence and no formal charges filed. In an ideal world, the Cowboys appeal, manage to drag out the process for about 8 weeks or so, go 7-1 in the interim, then give in and accept the suspension, Zeke gets a 6 week vacation, the Boys go 4-2 during that time, bringing them to 11-3, Zeke comes back with 2 games left, knocks the rust off, and the Boys go into the playoffs at 13-3 (again) with a super fresh Zeke who has a chip on his shoulder. Okay, so that's wishful thinking, I know, but the chip on the shoulder part, at the very least, should come to pass. Uncle Jerry and Coach Garrett should definitely use this as bulletin board "The league is out to get us" and "Us vs them" material. Our running game should still be good (obviously not as good) without Zeke. Our first 6 games are: Giants @ Broncos @ Cards Rams Packers @Niners If we can go 3-3 or better during that stretch, we'll be fine. The best thing to do now is to win the Super Bowl just to spit in Goodell's face.

Valve just announced Artifact, a DotA themed CCG coming 2018.

I loved the Dark Tower series many years ago (back when it was still 7 books, rather than 8 ), but I wonder how well it translates to movies ? (judging by the reviews, not very well) It might work better as a TV series as the books are very much a slow burn. I mean, there are certainly moments of intense action, but overall it's a very slow moving epic that spans a very long time with long periods of downtime. Purposely so, there is very much a point to it being an extremely long and tedious journey.

That's the thing with Kaepernick. Some people are trying to spin the story that he's being blackballed from the NFL because of his outspokenness and political views. The fact of the matter is that he had 1 solid season under a coach that new how to best exploit his athleticism, after that his play has been mediocre at best. If the guy was a good, or even just mid-tier starter-level QB then there would be plenty of teams willing to give him a chance. Given that over his career his quality of play has been backup-level, I can't blame any of the teams for not wanting to take on all the baggage and headaches that come with Kaep for a guy that's likely going to do little, if anything, to help their team win.

I'm sure the denizens of southern Florida are super excited for Cutler's sulking act on the sidelines.

I just got back from Atomic Blonde. Solid spy action movie. Charlize Theron was great, as per usual. James McAvoy poured the dirtbag routine on a bit too thick to keep the suspense up, so the twists were a bit predictable. Still not a terrible plot, just nothing special. The star of the show was the action, particularly the fight scenes, which were Wickian (on par with John Wick [very much a compliment]). There is one rather lengthy fight sequence in particular which is all types of rad and super duper brutal. They definitely left it open to a sequel, and I hope they make it a franchise (they probably will if it makes money, everyone is trying to make everything into a franchise these days) as I'm very much down with Charlize Theron as a super badass action hero.

Rope... unless you're playing as Gordon Freeman

Fun fact: Back in my PnP gaming days, rope was consistently one of the very first things I purchased, assuming I didn't already have it as a starting item. I pretty much always had 50' of rope with me. It didn't matter what class I was playing (more often than not I was either a fighter or a cleric).